Carr Peak with Zeke and Sadie

After three weekends of no substantial hiking, I opted today to get back out.    I told Kevin I'd be leaving at 6am.  That turned to 7am, then 8am, all while I was trying to get some reading for Amazon done.  Kevin gave up on me leaving the house by 9am. "It's going to get hot this afternoon!" he said.

Clouds started forming late in the morning which actually provided cool shade for us, rather than the heat-throbbing rays under clear skies from earlier in the morning.  I finally left the house at 10:30am to drive to the trail head.  I'm glad I waited a few hours to hike this, as today's hike up the peak proved to be full of wildflowers, butterflies, two hawks and water at the rockfalls by the aspen grove.  I only met two other people going up and one couple going down.  The increasing shade in the late morning proved to be refreshing for me, Zeke and Sadie.

My lack of any decent hiking in three weeks did slow me down some, but I was never out of breath or feeling exhausted.  I do, however, know that I must not become a sloth despite my busy work schedule this semester.

As usual, I started up the Sawmill trail, the steeper but shadier trail up to the peak trail.  I always let the dogs drink from the springs at the half-mile mark.

I had enough water for the dogs, but was glad to see water flowing from the waterfall rocks in the aspen grove.  My favorite Golden Columbines were also in full bloom, but the aspens are already naked.  The black spotted virus has made the trees' leaves go from green to dark brown, without any yellow hues to admire from afar.  The scent of autumn is already on its way through the grove.  In another month the tall yellow flowers will be dead and the tall grass through the grove will pinch the legs.

I really need to learn my Arizona wildflowers.  There are plenty of yellow varieties in bloom now, but the one flower I do miss since the 2011 wildfire is the red sage that used to be so prevalent above the aspen grove.  Now yellow flowers, which the forest service dumped en masse over the burned area in August 2011 to prevent landslides, are thriving and making any surviving red sage hard to see from the trail.

The trail was muddy in parts from yesterday afternoon's brief but violent downpour, but it didn't cause me to slip or slide.

It took me two hours to reach the peak.  We stayed on top for 15 minutes before resuming the descent. We had the trail to ourselves until we reached the last mile and I passed a couple going up.  It was after 2pm and they planned on making it to the top.

Winds were calm all throughout the hike.  I'm glad I made it my goal today to bag my favorite peak in the Huachucas.    

More later